


On love and fresh water

by Ingi



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Denial of Feelings, Developing Relationship, F/F, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Light Angst, Love Confessions, Quidditch Player Ginny Weasley, Some Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-05
Updated: 2018-06-05
Packaged: 2019-05-18 16:04:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14855858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ingi/pseuds/Ingi
Summary: Ginny doesn't want to date Gabrielle Delacour.





	On love and fresh water

**Author's Note:**

> This work is fulfilling a wish for "lenapinewoods"!
> 
> The title comes from the French idiom, "vivre d’amour et d’eau fraiche", which pretty much means, "to live on love alone", but it can be literally translated into "to live on love and fresh water".

Ginny doesn't _want_ to date Gabrielle Delacour.  
  
It's not a problem with Gabrielle herself - Ginny has met her before, knows that she's as brave and clever and beautiful as her older sister, but without all of her (many) flaws. The problem is, _Bill_ is married to _Fleur_. Ginny has spent the last eighteen years of her life under her brothers' shadows, not because they're so great, necessarily, but because she has _a lot_ of brothers. It is quite a large shadow to avoid, that's all.  
  
Dating a French, silvery-blond woman with Veela blood? Bill has done that. And Ginny is not bitter enough to hold herself back from taking what she wants only because one of her brothers has done so before, but she's _definitely_ bitter enough to avoid making an unnecessary effort to walk right into something like that.  
  
So she goes to the date, and sits with Gabrielle, and they share French cuisine (Gabrielle was missing home, and Ginny is not a monster) and they talk all night, and Ginny tells her that she doesn't want to date her, _can't_. Gabrielle is incredibly understanding. And because she is also incredibly intelligent, she points out that her sister and Ginny's own brother are not likely to let it be that easily.  
  
What Ginny definitely _wasn't_ expecting: an offer to pretend to date for a while, so they're both left well and truly alone, and stage a break-up fight uncomfortable enough to make Bill and Fleur swear off matchmaking for the rest of their lives. It's in that moment in which Ginny's suspicious are confirmed, the entirety of the Delacour family, had they gone to Hogwarts, would've been placed straight into Slytherin.  
  
She's alright with that.  
  
They date for a week and everything is perfect. They date for a month and everything is- still perfect, and Bill and Fleur have definitely left them be by now, more interested in actually _raising_ their children, but Ginny refuses to ask Gabrielle to break up ( _fake_ break up), because she doesn't trust those two not to get right back to it if their matchmaking fails miserably so soon.  
  
They've been dating for four months, and Ginny is in the middle of an important Quidditch game and she's supposed to be _playing_ , but a glimmer of light catches her eye, and she turns her head and there she is, Gabrielle (easy to spot because of her hair, which Ginny is absolutely _not_ jealous of), sitting in the stands among the sweaty, screaming spectators, like she's been doing for the past few months.  
  
She's _grinning_. And then their eyes meet, and Gabrielle waves at her, the sweetest look in her face, and it hits Ginny like a Bludger (although thankfully, no actual Bludgers are thrown her way).  
  
She's in love with Gabrielle Delacour.  
  
And she's _not_ actually dating her. Yet.  
  
So the game ends and Ginny ignores the score, for the first and probably last time in her life, to run to the stands with probably more dramatism than the situation deserves, but- she's a professional Quidditch player, she can do whatever she wants. She's _already_ cool.  
  
Gabrielle takes Ginny's hands as soon as she's close enough to, beaming, and she opens her mouth (perfect, beautiful mouth Ginny now wants to kiss, really, really badly), but Ginny's faster, as usual.  
  
"It's not fake anymore," she hisses, gripping Gabrielle's hands for dear life. "It's _not_."  
  
And Gabrielle blinks, once, twice, and perfect understanding spreads across her face.  
  
"Ah," she says, smiling again. "No. Not for me, either."  
  
They quietly transition from fake dating into real dating, and it's as easy as everything always is with Gabrielle.  
  
They tell no one.  
  
_Until_ the day of their wedding, when Gabrielle cheerfully recounts the whole story, ignoring Ginny's attempts to hush her. Bill laughs so hard he nearly chokes to death.  
  
Ginny throws a sausage roll at his face, and then turns to kiss her wife.

**Author's Note:**

> I hadn't ever even _considered_ this pairing before, but I saw it mentioned in the rarepair-shorts community and went *thinking emoji*, basically. Also, it's femslash, so  <3
> 
> This was a fantastic idea, actually. Let's all go fill rarepair wishes! It's clearly a win-win.


End file.
